1. Field of the Invention
This description generally relates to the field of gaming, and more particularly to systems and methods of automating table gaming, for example, games played with playing cards such as blackjack, baccarat, and poker.
2. Description of the Related Art
Existing devices store playing cards in a stack, which is supported at an angle to simultaneously expose portions of each of the playing cards. A reader images or scans an exposed portion of each of the playing cards to read one or more markings carried by the playing cards. The markings may take a variety of forms, for example the markings may take the form of standard rank and suit markings such as the ranks two-ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, or the suits Clubs, Hearts, Spades, Diamonds. The markings may alternatively or additionally take the form of one or more machine-readable symbols carried on a portion of the playing cards, for example, carried along one or more edges of the playing cards. One possible drawback to this approach is that adjacent playing cards may be stuck together for any number of reasons, which prevents the exposure and consequently the successful reading of the markings from all of the playing cards. Consequently, it is estimated that the read accuracy associated with these type of discard readers may be as low as approximately 80%.